Regardless of their understandable reputation of not always doing a good job sticking to the truth and instead taking liberties, there are a lot of very good and more biopic films out there. 'Amadeus', 'The Elephant Man', 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Ed Wood' and 'Shadowlands' are favourites of mine. My other reasons for seeing 2019's 'Radioactive' was Marie Curie herself, a fascinating complex person with a fascinating complex life. And for Rosamund Pike, have always liked her but her unforgettable performance in 'Gone Girl' and her performances since has seen significant growth as an actress.
It pains me to say it, but to me 'Radioactive' sadly was a real disappointment in most respects. A case of a truly fine lead performance that deserved a much better film. Appreciated its ambition and good intentions, but Curie as a person, her life and her ahead of the time achievements that faced many obstacles were so much more interesting than depicted in 'Radioactive' and would have fared a lot better as a mini-series. Despite not being perfect, 1943's 'Madame Curie' treated her and her life with a lot more respect and taste.
Am going to start with the good things. As they are there, despite the strong overall disappointment. The best thing about 'Radioactive' is Pike, who is terrific and powerfully succeeds at making Curie a real character, rather than just an icon or stock caricature, with both strengths and flaws and showing steel in how she overcomes significant adversity. In fact, the acting overall is good considering what they had to work with.
Enough of the costuming and settings are handsome enough and evocative and there are moments of nice atmosphere in the photography. Curie and Pierre's relationship early on is quite sweet.
Unfortunately, there are many big drawbacks and significantly major. The script is weak, being very melodramatically soapy, awkward-sounding and far too exposition heavy (exposition that rambles and doesn't go very far). The editing jumps about all over the place visually and in the story, and the story is similarly disorganised. Curie is the only interesting character here, the rest are little more than underdeveloped walking cliches. Actually grew to really dislike Pierre by the end and the chemistry between Pike and Sam Riley (on admirable form) dissipates as the film goes on rather than gets stronger.
The story is very erratically paced, structurally it is very rushed and choppy but dramatically 'Radioactive' felt very dull because almost everything is underdeveloped and severely lacking in substance. The overuse of flashbacks and flash-forwards are too heavy in exposition and slow the film down a lot. Would go as far to say too that the flash-forwards are irrelevant, confused the drama at times and were not in good taste, seeming to undermine Curie's progressive findings and implying she contributed to future historical disasters.
While a good enough job is done with making Curie more than a caricature and her adversity, too little is done with the findings themselves, mentioned but treated in almost a throwaway way, their importance and what made her mind work. The conflict lacks tension and there is too much time spent on her personal life, handled in a bland and melodramatic manner.
Very disappointing film overall. Curie, her life and her achievements deserved better, as did Pike (giving one of her best performances in one of her worst films). See 'Madame Curie' instead. 4/10.
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